Seven Wonders of the World Competition

We already have the seven wonders of the ancient world; and in no particular order, here they are:

• the pyramids
• the hanging gardens of Babylon
• the temple of Artemis at Ephesus
• the statue of Zeus at Olympia
• the Colossus of Rhodes
• the Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus
• the lighthouse of Alexandria.

Of these, no one is even sure if the Hanging Gardens even existed (I doubt they did; maybe I'll expound on that another day) and the Colossus of Rhodes - no one even knows what this looked like or how big it really was, if it straddled the harbor or not. It could be 8 feet tall. No one really knows. Wild exaggerations is all we have. Nonetheless.

Seems that there is a new competition to decide upon the 7 wonders of the modern world. Why is 7 a magical number? Free advertising, I guess. Anyways. Egypt is a little peaved because its wonders (the pyramids) are the only ancient ones remaining; which gives them a little cache. And plus, it's funnier when Team America blew them up too.

Egypt is calling it a marketing stunt. I don't think its a marketing stunt, so much as a way for Weber to mooch off the countries that in the competition. Here's a story from today. Here's my evidence:

Weber has embarked on a tour of the 21 short-listed sites but got a frosty reception in Egypt.

In other words, "Dude you got some rockin' wonders here. Can I stay free in your hotels so I can take pictures of them so people will vote? Imagine the tourist dollars if you win a spot. Ka-Ching" Sure man, stay as long as you want. Need some women (or men) too?

Some of the sites in competition are:

• Petra in Jordan
• the Eiffel Tower
• the Acropolis in Athens
• the Statue of Liberty
• the Taj Mahal
• the Sydney Opera House
• the Great Wall of China

Someone remind me why the Acropolis is in there? If it didn't make the cut the first time the seven wonders was announced, why give it a second shot? Napoleon's army blew the it apart a few centuries ago anyways. It's not too pretty now. And, technically, the Great Wall isn't really a "wonder" its a series of small wonders, by slave labor. Is that what you want to put forth?

The Sydney Opera House? Come on now. The 7 wonders of the ancient world were monumental achievements that boggled the minds of people in those time periods. Can we say that about the opera house - how many people even know it exists? Maybe the Eiffel Tower, maybe the Taj Mahal. I'd vote for the Twin Towers, personally. But that everyone gets a vote - a popularity contest? That doesn't have a lot of science behind it.

But all in all, this is a silly contest. I don't really know or care what Petra is now and if its in the 7 wonders I won't know or care any more afterwards. Let the 7 wonders be part of the past. If you want to memorialize magnificent structures of today, don't mooch of the cache of bygone civilizations to do so.